Thursday, March 31, 2011

Bashar Al Assad, the celebrated (by Hillary Clinton) “reformer” of Syria, has decided not do any reforming after all, at least not yet. He declined to rescind the country’s state of emergency, and his security forces are continuing their violent suppression of street demonstrations against the regime.

Meanwhile, the rebels in Libya are retreating from an offensive by forces loyal to Col. Moamar Qadafi, who have retaken several cities in the last two days. Reports from Tripoli say that a NATO bomb attack killed at least 40 civilians.

In other news, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump says the world has a Muslim problem.

Thanks to AC, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Nilk, Paul Green, Steen, Takuan Seiyo, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

I posted last weekend about the ongoing refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, which was triggered by the recent upheavals and rebellions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.

The brunt of the exodus from the Maghreb is being borne by Italy, with most of the migration flow landing on the shores of Lampedusa, and, to a lesser extent, Sicily.

According to AGI, at least 423,000 people have fled from Libya since the uprising began, with 20,000 more departing every day. The majority of these refugees end up in Egypt or Tunisia, and most of the rest escape to adjacent countries south of the Sahara. However, an estimated 2,000 have crossed the Mediterranean to Malta and Lampedusa.

The new wave of migrants from Libya can only be expected to increase. The Libyans are being added to an already overwhelming refugee crisis on the island of Lampedusa, where 6,000 to 10,000 refugees have accumulated in the last several weeks, arriving too suddenly to be processed quickly and shipped off to other parts of Italy.

The situation on Lampedusa has become so grave that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi felt compelled to visit the island and reassure the residents that the crisis would be addressed promptly, and that most of the refugees would be removed within two to five days. Sure enough, 1,700 Tunisians were carried by boat today from Lampedusa to Manduria. Additional batches of Tunisians will reportedly be relocated to the refugee camp at Ventimiglia, near the border with France. Migrants held at the Ventimiglia camp routinely escape and attempt to cross into France.

The Finnish state TV network YLE decided to air a documentary on “populism” in Europe — you know, those dangerous neo-Nazis, fascists, racists, and xenophobes, people like you and me. And they just happened to broadcast it two weeks in advance of the next election.

A mere coincidence, mind you.

KGS summarizes what the documentary had to say at Tundra Tabloids. The bolded lines are quotes from the program. See the original article for screen caps and links:

How timely of them.

The first half of the 55 minute documentary, Populisitien Eurooppa, (viewable until 6.4.2011) sets the stage and tempo with the Hungarian Jobbik movement, who really are indeed, statist, ultra-nationalist Socialists. The Jobbik though, are still classified in the film as being “right-wing”, a highly superficial and nefarious label if there ever was one.

From there it touched briefly on Romania and then on to the Netherlands, where Geert Wilders is featured prominently, and in the TT’s opinion, one of the main targets of the documentary. However, it actually contained some good exchanges with both politicians, academics and people on the street, of whom the latter came across rather well.

Clearly though, the voice over of Geert Wilders’ giving his speech in Copenhagen at the Danish Free Press Society, while panning the streets of Amsterdam filled with Muslims was meant to convey a more sinister message.

The more Islam we have, the less freedom we have.

We have to be tough to criminals, we have to expel criminal foreigners,-

The real message wanting to be relayed by the YLE crew, was that “populists”, regardless of the validity of some of their points, were needlessly spreading hate and fear, while the Left are stumped what to do about it since they are the ones who created the mess in the first place.

Oh yes, we “populists” are definitely the ones spreading all the hate and fear.

The representatives of the Religion of Peace would never ever do that. Not Mohammed Atta, nor Taimour Abdulwahab al Abdaly. Nor Maj. Nidal Hasan. Not even Arif Uka.

No, those luminaries just spread mass murder, maiming, and mayhem. But no “hate” or “fear”. Only Islamophobes do that.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

While the major players in the NATO coalition debated whether or not to arm the Libyan rebels, Col. Ghaddafi’s forces retook the town of Ras Lanuf, which had been in rebel hands for a while. The Al Qaeda presence among the rebels is reportedly growing, and several hundred Libyan mujahideen fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan are reportedly making their way back to Libya to join the fighting.

Meanwhile, North African refugees who have escaped from holding camps in Italy are trying to cross the border into France, to join their relatives there. The French, however, are watching the border closely, and have been turning back any undocumented migrants, no matter what stories they tell.

In other news, levels of radioactive iodine found in seawater just outside the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan are more than 4,000 times greater that the maximum amount that is considered safe.

Thanks to AC, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, KGS, Nilk, Prospero, Steen, Takuan Seiyo, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

As has often been pointed out in this space, the most important theater of the Counterjihad struggle is the ongoing information war. Although we can whup the enemy’s fundament on any conventional battlefield, we are currently being defeated, because Islam is winning the information war hands-down.

Right now The English Defence League is the biggest threat to the Jihad in Britain — and possibly in all of Europe. By exposing the truth about Islam, the EDL is awakening the average native English citizen to what Islamization really means.

Islam cannot succeed in the long term if this education process continues, so Muslim zealots — and their allies on the hard Left — are determined to subvert and distort the image of the EDL, thereby neutralizing the message it conveys.

The preferred technique is to cement in the eyes of the general public the idea that the EDL is a “racist”, “Nazi”, and “fascist” organization made up of violent lower-class hooligans. The latest examples of this information war in action are a series of vandalism and arson attacks on private homes in Luton that are meant to look like the work of the EDL, or to be targeting the EDL, or both.

If these attacks succeed in their purpose, the EDL will be discredited and its members intimidated — a twofer for the Great Jihad.

Since we held our extremely success full demonstration in Luton the town is alive with positive talk among the local people about the EDL. People were expecting a bloodbath, a bunch of rowdy thugs out to fight and riot with the Islamic community. Well that was the hype anyway — or should I say “Hope” for some? Of course, that’s not what we delivered.

The level of opposition that we encounter from every angle is astounding when you think about it. The aggressors and idiots who try to provoke and attack us come from the Islamic community, from the deluded and often riotous militant-Left brigade... and let’s not forget the real “far right” — those white supremacist dinosaurs. And of course there are many other bands of various misfits.

The point is we have survived many attacks, and we have become bigger, better and more organised than people give us credit for. Our opponents know this, so their actions become more and more extreme. This is exactly what we have seen in Luton since the demo.

Some people just can’t accept any positive media about the EDL, they can’t accept anything less than a sensationalist or even manufactured headline that paints us in the very worst light imaginable. That is how scared these people are about our message. They are so scared that we are gaining ground that they will do anything they can to turn the screw on us. They know that with growing mainstream support, not just with the working class but with middle England too, we are becoming their worst nightmare. To counter our success it takes something drastic. Desperate times mean desperate measures.

One example that comes to mind is when Socialist Worker reported that Bolton Mosque had been attacked on the eve of our demonstration in the city. They made it really clear that we were almost definitely to blame. But, of course, the incident had nothing to do with the EDL — and the police were all too happy to make this clear to the local community.

But this sort of thing is happening daily — our opponents reporting their own prejudiced assumptions as if they were unbiased news stories.

Why do some people still believe that the EDL racist? Because that’s what they really want to believe! They want us to be the bad guys, and for everyone else to believe that too, because perhaps then people won’t realise how clueless groups like Socialist Worker and the UAF really are.

They accuse us of dividing communities. How? By telling the truth? We encourage an open debate, we educate our members. They keep talking about giving ‘no platform’ and ‘smashing’ the EDL. They accuse us of things without any evidence, and they continue to tell people that we’re racists despite all the evidence to the contrary.

David Yerushalmi is an accomplished and dedicated attorney who has done tireless work, much of it pro bono, for various anti-sharia legal initiatives. He works closely with Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller on legal issues concerning their activism against the Islamization of America.

Abe Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) — a notoriously hard-left organization, ostensibly advocating for American Jews — has recently taken against Mr. Yerushalmi.

I am absolutely appalled that ADL has smeared the name of a reputable attorney, David Yerushalmi alongside others who, unlike him, are indeed egregious in word and deed.

Attorney Yerushalmi was rankly faulted in a terribly unprofessional article some weeks ago. In my opinion, as a journalist of 35 years experience, this is a case in which he was genuinely libeled and I certainly hope he intends to sue. I believe he has a cause of action.

As you know, libel in America consists of stating something inaccurate (often intentionally) — and with purposeful malice. The article I note above contained no facts on which to base its opinions, and malice virtually dripped from the prose. In recent years, journalists have often made me ashamed of my lifelong profession, but this piece took the cake and the frosting as well. If it had any role, partial or otherwise, in your determination to add Mr. Yerushalmi to a list of hate-mongers, I would urge you to reconsider.

I have spoken with Mr. Yerushalmi as a source and find him one of the most precise attorneys I know. His information is absolutely credible. He thoroughly and exactly cites many Islamic law texts. He is never inaccurate. Never. He is certainly not the hateful man that you paint him.

Perhaps you are unaware that the national leadership of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), on the other hand, has repeatedly been identified by federal law-enforcement officials to have had links with terrorist organizations. This occurred in Nov. 2008 with the Holy Land Foundation Hamas and terror-financing case. The government obtained 108 unanimous verdicts on ALL 108 terror-financing, money laundering and tax fraud charges leveled against five HLF officers. Some of the funds they sent to Hamas had washed through CAIR accounts, proven by canceled check copies.

Federal evidence was again cited in the civil suit by the family of David Boim in the Chicago 7th Circuit Court of Appeals against the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) — CAIR’s predecessor and co-founder — in Dec. 2008. The federal judge in that case ruled that the CAIR predecessor — namely the IAP — was indeed inseparable from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Muslim American Society and he held their agents responsible, fully and finally, for the $156 million judgment in the Boim’s case against them. Thus $156 million less is now available to fund Hamas terrorism.

Then in October 2010, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that hundreds of individuals and organizations named as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation case — including CAIR — would not be delisted as unindicted co-conspirators, due to the preponderance of evidence against them. CAIR knew and knows that the evidence against its leadership and several CAIR chapters is indeed so strong that it could never have won an appeal, and did not even try. An appeal was filed by another North American Muslim Brotherhood organization with which you may not be familiar, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), a subsidiary of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

It is a travesty that you brand as a hatemonger a man legitimately attempting — via the U.S. courts — to legally defeat efforts of the above groups, among others, to increasingly impose Islamic law through secular U.S. civil courts and institutions. Unfortunately, the encroachment of these laws is not a “theory” but is a well-established fact.

The trial of PVV leader Geert Wilders on charges of discrimination and incitement to hatred has been on hold for the last two months as Mr. Wilders’ lawyer wrangled with the court over various procedural motions. Now it appears that the last obstacle has been removed, and the trial will resume.

THE HAGUE, 31/03/11 - The criminal case against MP Geert Wilders is going ahead as planned. The district court in Amsterdam yesterday rejected virtually all the technical objections put forward by Wilders’ lawyer Bram Moszkowicz. On one point, however, he got his way.

The lawyer had wanted the Public Prosecutor’s Office (OM) to be declared inadmissible, which would have meant the end of the court case. But the court ruled that the OM had the right to prosecute Wilders for incitement to hatred and discrimination and defamation of certain groups including Moroccans. The OM cannot however prosecute Wilders for comparisons that he has made between Islam and Fascism, according to the court.

Below is an English translation of an op-ed by Geert Wilders that was published today in HP/De Tijd. Many thanks to the PVV for sending it.

Time to Unmask MuhammadBy Geert Wilders

To know why Islam is a mortal danger one must not only consider the Koran but also the character of Muhammad, who conceived the Koran and the entirety of Islam.

The Koran is not just a book. Muslims believe that Allah himself wrote it and that it was dictated to Muhammad in the original version, the Umm al-Kitab, which is kept on a table in heaven. Consequently one cannot argue with the contents. Who would dare to disagree with what Allah himself has written? This explains much of Muhammadan behaviour, from the violence of jihad to the hatred and persecution of Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims and apostates. What we in the West regard as abnormal, is perfectly normal for Islam.

A second insuperable problem with Islam is the figure of Muhammad. He is not just anyone. He is al-insan al-kamil, the perfect man. To become a Muslim one must pronounce the Shahada (the Muslim creed). By pronouncing the Shahada one testifies that there is no god that can be worshipped except Allah, and one testifies that Muhammad is his servant and messenger.

The Koran, and hence Allah, lays down that Muhammad’s life must be imitated. The consequences of this are horrendous and can be witnessed on a daily basis.

There has been much analysis of Muhammad’s mental sanity. In spite of all the available research, it is rarely mentioned or debated. It is a taboo to discuss the true nature of the man whom one and a half billion Muslims around the world regard as a holy prophet and example to be followed. That taboo must be breached in the West, and here in the Netherlands.

Ali Sina is an Iranian ex-Muslim who established the organisation for apostates of Islam Faith Freedom International. In his latest book he posits that Muhammad is a narcissist, a paedophile, a mass murderer, a terrorist, a misogynist, a lecher, a cult leader, a madman, a rapist, a torturer, an assassin and a looter. Sina has offered 50,000 dollars for the one who can prove otherwise. Nobody has claimed the reward as yet. And no wonder, as the description is based on the Islamic texts themselves, such as the hadiths, the descriptions of Muhammad’s life from testimonies of contemporaries.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The refugee crisis on the island of Lampedusa has intensified to the point that food is lacking for 2,000 of the 6,200 immigrants on the island. Refugees are also landing in Sicily, and the Italian government is in the process of relocating migrants from Sicily and Lampedusa to camps in different parts of the mainland. The Italian government says that if Tunisia does not take the necessary steps to stop the outflow of people from its shores, then Italy will take steps to repatriate the refugees.

Meanwhile, Australian government computers have been hacked, and it is feared that emails on Prime Minister Gillard’s computer may have been read by the intruders. The Chinese intelligence services are suspected to be behind the attack.

In other news, the Standard & Poor rating for Portuguese government bonds has been reduced to junk level.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about an commemoration of the Greek Genocide which will be held next month in New York. My post prompted an email from a representative of the international conference on “Three Genocides, One Strategy”, which was held last September in Athens. Below is the press release that was issued by the sponsors after the event:

International Conference“Three Genocides, One Strategy”

17-19 September 2010

The Second International Conference “Three Genocides, One Strategy” was successfully realized in the Old Parliament chamber, in Athens. The Conference was co-sponsored by organizations representing the descendants of Christian Anatolian people, victims of the crime of genocide by the Turks in the early 20th century; these included the Armenian National Committee of Greece, the Association of Greeks from Smyrna, the Pan-Pontian Federation of Greece, the Pan-Hellenic Association of Assyrians and the Pan-Hellenic Association of Pontian Educators.

A measure of the success of the Conference was the enormous participation of scholars and others from Greece and from abroad throughout its duration. In addition, issues were examined and suggestions were made by the participants that will contribute to the agenda of conferences to follow. At the same time, thousands of people interested in the topic of the conference had the opportunity to follow real time via the internet.

This Conference, followed that held in Komotini in 2008, examined the genocides of the Pontian and Anatolian Greeks, of the Armenians and of the Assyrians on a common basis, suggesting a common strategy towards the international recognition of the crimes. The papers presented examined and demonstrated the historic reality of the three genocides, their legal dimension, along with proposals for their recognition.

In a discussion on policies that will lead to international recognition of these crimes it was proposed that:

We’ve posted in the past about the spurious claims by CAIR and other Muslim Brotherhood front groups that “hate crimes” against Muslims are increasing in the United States. When official law enforcement statistics are examined — rather than mere statements by Muslim apologists and their leftist friends — the actual incidence of such crimes is seen to be very low, and getting lower.

In an effort to counter Rep. Pete King (R-NY), who recently held hearings on radical Islam, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is currently holding his own hearings on prejudice and hate crimes against Muslims. TheCenter for Security Policy has just issued a press release to remind Americans of the actual statistics involved:

New Study on Hate Crimes Debunks the Myth of a Growing Trend in Muslim Victimization

Washington, DC, March 29, 2011 — The Center for Security Policy today released a revised edition of their groundbreaking longitudinal study, Religious Bias Crimes 2000-2009: Muslim, Jewish and Christian Victims — Debunking the Myth of a Growing Trend in Muslim Victimization, based on FBI statistics reported annually in the Uniform Crime Reporting Program. The Center’s study contradicts the assertions that religious bias crimes against Muslims have increased, and that the alleged cause is widespread “Islamophobia” in America. In fact, the study shows that religious bias crimes — also known as hate crimes — against Muslim Americans, measured by the categories of incidents, offenses or victims, have remained relatively low with a downward trend since 2001, and are significantly less than the numbers of bias crimes against Jewish victims.

The Center’s study also contradicts the assumption of increased hate crimes against Muslims which has been asserted by Senator Richard Durbin’s (D-IL) Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, and is the topic of hearings being held today. Printed copies of the study were delivered to each member of the U.S. Senate early this morning.

According to the Center’s analysis, in 2009, Jewish victims of hate crimes outnumbered Muslim victims by more than 8 to 1 (1,132 Jewish victims to 132 Muslim victims). From 2000 through 2009, for every one hate crime incident against a Muslim, there were six hate crime incidents against Jewish victims (1,580 Muslim incidents versus 9,692 Jewish incidents). Even in 2001 when religious bias crimes against Muslims increased briefly for a nine-week period, total anti-Muslim incidents, offenses and victims remained approximately half of the corresponding anti-Jewish totals.

Below is a culturally enriched crime story from this morning’s Sjællands Nyheder in Denmark.

Note: Islam is not the only variety of cultural enrichment in the West, although the majority of enrichment atrocity stories involve the Religion of Peace and usually have a non-zero Mohammed coefficient. In this case, the perp is said to have had “a foreign accent”, which is no proof of Islamicity on his part. I wouldn’t make any bets against it, however.

Many thanks to our Danish correspondent Signe for the translation:

Attempted kidnapping of eight-year-old girlBy Claus Rødgaard Thomsen

SORØ: Tuesday morning an eight-year-old girl from Ruds Vedby was subjected to an extremely unpleasant experience as a man tried to kidnap her by dragging her into a van.

“There haven’t been any similar episodes, but if we have this sort of thing in the area we must get hold of him,” says Hugo Larsen, deputy police commissioner at Sydsjælland and Lolland-Falster Police.

The eight-year-old girl escaped with a fright this time around.

In the morning she left her home on Fuglebakken for the short walk to Ruds Vedby School.

A gray-black van followed her and on Ternevej, a man jumped out and tried to get the girl in the van. The man grabbed the girl so hard it hurt, while he allegedly said “Come here, girl” with a foreign accent. [emphasis added]

Monday, March 28, 2011

The exodus from Libya has begun. Several hundred refugees have reportedly left Libya heading for Sicily, traveling in flimsy dinghies and inflatable boats. At least one boat was lost at sea. The immigrant crisis on Lampedusa has become acute, and the Italian government is planning to relocate several thousand refugees to the mainland — if they do not have any diseases that require quarantining.

In Syria, confrontations between the security services and demonstrators are ongoing, with more reports of soldiers firing into the crowds. In Yemen, a munitions factory that had been taken over by the rebels exploded while the occupiers were attempting to haul off the weapons. Some reports say that as many as 110 people were killed.

In other news, plutonium has been detected in the soil in the area around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, although the level is negligible, and no threat to health. Radioactive water is leaking from the plant through a tunnel, and officials fear that it may eventually find its way into the sea.

Thanks to AA, AC, C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, CSP, Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Lurker from Tulsa, Takuan Seiyo, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Below is a Norwegian TV documentary about the Muslim Brotherhood, subtitled in German. We posted the same film with English subtitles several months ago, but the user has since closed his account, and the original is no longer available. Vlad is working on a replacement.

Many thanks to www.derprophet.info for the translation, to the Counterjihad Collective for the time-stamping, and to Vlad Tepes for subtitling and posting this video:

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On last week’s open thread — which has accumulated more than 250 comments, and still growing — Sagunto suggested that a new topic be established to discuss Hesperado’s analysis of Politically Correct Multiculturalism (PC MC). Hesperado indicated that he might not be available for much discussion in the immediate future, but we might as well go ahead and get started without him.

We can all do warm-up exercises until the coach arrives. And if I get the introductory material wrong, Hesperado can set me straight when he shows up later.

Before getting down to the topic itself, watch this news report of a schoolyard incident as a case in point. The clip concerns an Australian boy who had been picked on and bullied at school for years, until one day he snapped and retaliated with disproportionate force against one of his tormentors. A cell phone video of the event went viral over the internet, and as a result the kid is unlikely to be bullied again anytime soon.

Those of us who grew up during the pre-PC era would consider this to be a just, equitable, and optimal resolution to the victim’s dilemma. The rules have changed in recent decades, however, and what the boy did is now considered doubleplus ungood — both children have been suspended from school, establishing the familiar moral equivalence between an aggressor and a victim who defends himself.

However, rather than focus on the issue itself, I’m more interested in the PC mindset that is so much in evidence in this story. When the victim’s father is interviewed, he says, “It’s nothing to be proud of.”

Oh, really? Why not?

If it were my kid, I’d certainly be telling him how proud I was of him, and that what he did is the only effective long-term deterrent for bullies. This father, however, is quite a bit younger than I am, and presumably grew up in an age of universal political correctness. Like the rest of us, he has been bombarded daily by relentless indoctrination from the media, the government, and public institutions.

And it may be that the father really is proud of his son, but knows the rules so well that he dare not voice his pride in public. This demonstrates the uncanny resemblance between political correctness and Islam — absolute public compliance is required, and ordinary people are well aware of how dangerous it is to say the wrong thing when the guardians of orthodoxy may be listening.

And consider the final quote from the victim himself. He doesn’t say, “You don’t have to take it! You can fight back, like I did — it’s the only way to stop a bully.”

Nope. He knows the rules, too. He says, “School ain’t gonna last forever.” In other words, “You just have to hunker down and endure it until you can get out of there.”

Such is the force of political correctness in all modern Western societies.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Throwing Multiculturalism into the PC mix described above has created a toxic brew that is now in the process of deconstructing Western Civilization.

My description of PC MC will draw on Hesperado’s excellent analysis, but may differ in some respects. His basic thesis is that PC MC is not the result of a deliberate plan by a secret cabal of powerful elites who intend to use it to abolish the Western nation-state and establish a globalized new world order. Instead it is a widely-diffused ideology that has its origins in traditional positive and well-intended Western ethical principles. All those good intentions have mutated and metastasized into a deeply irrational parody of the original, and are now embedded throughout the culture at all levels.

PC MC is fundamentally incoherent, but since most people never examine it in detail, or even consciously, the essential irrationality never has to be addressed.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Nicolas Sarkozy’s aggressive campaign against Libya has not helped his party, UMP, in local elections. UMP was beaten by the Socialists, and Marine Le Pen’s National Front also did surprisingly well, with 11%

The Libyan rebels recaptured three key oil cities today, and are closing in on Col. Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte, which is now under bombardment by NATO warplanes. Meanwhile, the Syrian army continues to crack down on protesters, and the death toll in recent days has risen to more than 60. In Jordan, one protester is reported to have been killed during Friday’s clashes with police and soldiers.

In other news, water in the basements of all six reactors at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant is contaminated with radioactive materials. Radiation levels spiked again today, hampering efforts to restore the reactors’ cooling systems. Trace amounts of radioactive iodine from Fukushima have been detected in rainwater in Massachusetts.

Thanks to AC, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Kitman, SWH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Melanie Phillips is a well-known British anti-jihad author and a columnist for The Spectator. On March 13th, concerning the Itamar massacre, she wrote the following in her column:

Today the massacred Fogel family was buried in Jerusalem. And as anticipated, the moral depravity of the Arabs is finding a grotesque echo in the moral bankruptcy and worse of the British and American ‘liberal’ media…

So to the New York Times, it’s not the Arab massacre of a Jewish family which has jeopardised ‘peace prospects’ — because the Israelis will quite rightly never trust any agreement with such savages — but instead Israeli policy on building more homes, on land to which it is legally and morally entitled, which is responsible instead for making peace elusive. Twisted, and sick.

The progressive intelligentsia and their Muslim friends immediately went into apoplexy over Ms. Phillips’ words. To say such things about our friends the Arabs — how racist! How Islamophobic!

In Modern Multicultural Britain, one doesn’t just get angry at Islamophobia — one files an official complaint with the appropriate law enforcement authorities. And sure enough, that’s what happened shortly after the column was published. On March 18th the Grauniad reported:

A Melanie Phillips blogpost on the Spectator website which referred to the “moral depravity” of Arab “savages” is being investigated by the Press Complaints Commission.

The online comment piece, headlined “Armchair barbarism”, focused on media coverage of the murder of five members of a Jewish family in the West Bank settlement of Itamar by Palestinian militants earlier this month.

[…]

The column, which also referred to coverage of the murders by CNN, the BBC and the Guardian – part of the group that publishes MediaGuardian.co.uk – prompted two complaints to the press watchdog, one of them from Engage, a group promoting Muslim engagement in British society.

Inayat Bunglawala, chair of Muslims4UK, said: “Her words went far beyond just denouncing the killings. It was a far more generalised racist outburst against Arabs as a whole…”

Bunglawala said he had also complained to the police about the column.

In the video below from an Israeli news program, Ms. Phillips defends her use of the phrases “moral depravity” and “such savages”. She also discusses the dereliction of the British press in its refusal to air the whole truth when reporting on Israel.

The report below from CBN News discusses events in Egypt since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

The recent referendum was not a triumph of Egypt’s nascent democracy — which is the way it was played in the media — but a rigged enterprise designed to give the advantage to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Ikhwan is the only political force that is well-organized and ruthless enough to fill the current power vacuum, provided that elections are held quickly. Thanks to the referendum scam, Egyptians will vote in September, which should be soon enough for the Brotherhood’s purposes.

Egyptian Copts understand very well that “democracy” in Egypt does not bode well for the Christian minority. The majority of Egyptians favor sharia, which means that Christians are likely to face persecution — democratic persecution.

The imperial power wielded by Rome decreased gradually over the course of centuries, during which time a steady deterioration was punctuated by repeated barbarian incursions and the sacking of cities. The reach of the empire shrank by fits and starts until it was overthrown entirely and replaced by kingdoms ruled by the Germanic invaders.

In his address to the Magna Carta Foundation in Rome on Friday night, Geert Wilders referred to a significant event during the course of the fall of Rome: the freezing of the Rhine on December 31st, 406. This allowed thousands of Germanic invaders to cross the frozen river and overrun Gaul, after which they were well-positioned to invade the Italian peninsula and sack Rome itself just a few years later.

Mr. Wilders finds a parallel to these events in the current decline of Western Civilization. He notes that modern-day barbarians — immigrants from the Islamic world — are anticipating the equivalent of the freezing of the Rhine, after which they will be able to overrun and sack the copious riches of an all-but-moribund Europe:

Our opponents are hoping for an event that is akin to the freezing of the Rhine in 406, when thousands of immigrants will be given an easy opportunity to cross massively into the West.

This has been the winter of Arab discontent, and as a result of the recent upheavals in North Africa and the Middle East, the metaphorical Rhine may finally have frozen over. Instead of a river, the barbarian invaders are crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Instead of walking, they are cramming themselves into rickety boats and crossing over into Italian territory.

The refugee crisis on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa has been intensifying since early in January, and an abrupt uptick in the influx of new migrants is now underway.

The immigration situation in Lampedusa is still very tense. Finance Police informs that the latest landing took place at 7.30, with about 40 immigrants reaching the island. But four large boats are now expected to bring 600 more. Plus, there is great concern for the 330 Eritreans and Somalis, adrift in non-Italian waters, 60 miles off the shores of Lampedusa. There were rescued by patrol units of the Coast Guard and Finance Police and escorted by the Italian navy ship ‘Etna’.

The crisis is not confined to Lampedusa. The pressure on the island is relieved by sending the overflow of immigrants to Sicily, where they are consigned to refugee camps. Sicilian locals are not always happy with the task that has been forced upon them:

Saturday, March 26, 2011

The rebel commander in Libya has admitted in an interview that some of his fighters have links to Al Qaeda. According to unconfirmed reports, members of Al Qaeda managed to steal surface-to-air missiles from a government arsenal in Libya. The British media say that approximately 250 special forces from the UK are on the ground in Libya.

Meanwhile, the violent protests in Syria have intensified, with a call for rebellion going out on Facebook. More than 40 demonstrators are reported to have been killed by government forces in the last few days. The protests in Jordan are also continuing, with hundreds of demonstrators camped out in a public square in downtown Amman.

In other news, Islamic militants blew up two girls’ schools in Pakistan.

Thanks to AC, C. Cantoni, Insubria, JD, Mary Abdelmassih, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The video below is a trailer for a documentary that will air tomorrow on CNN about the controversy over the proposed building of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

I suspect that this is going to be a typical dhimmi MSM hit-job, but we’ll have to wait and see. You’ll notice, however, that the Muslims and mosque-supporters all speak with nice, articulate mainstream accents, while the opponents are distinctly native Tennesseans. [For our European readers: that sort of accent is routinely used by the MSM and Hollywood to represent atavistic, backward, intolerant, Christian fundamentalist Southern hicks. This may or may not be a coincidence; after all, one would expect most of the opponents of the mosque to be locals, and its supporters to be “foreigners”.]

The well-known author and anti-jihad activist Bat Ye’or — a native of Egypt — was interviewed at the Norwegian website Document.no about the recent upheavals in Egypt and the political prospects there for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Many thanks to Cecilie for translating the interview, and to Tundra Tabloids for posting it. Some excerpts are below:

Bat Ye’or: The Brotherhood wants to Islamize modernity, not to modernize Islam

Q: Bat Ye’or, thank you for letting Document.no. interview you. There has recently been a revolution in your native country, Egypt. Everybody was apparently surprised by the fall of Mubarak’s regime. Were you surprised too?

A: Yes, of course.

Q: Few commentators seem to have any clear idea of where the road leads to for Egypt. The subsequent future events compared with both the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the revolution in Iran in 1979. Where do you think the country is heading now?

A: We are on the way to the end, I fear, for the Muslim Brotherhood is the only well-organized and structured movement with clear objectives and an international power base. It also seems that it has almost unlimited access to financing. I am of the opinion that any comparison with Western revolution is meaningless, because we are dealing with a Shariah society that works within a political view of reality that rejects the foundation of our own. I have also noticed with great sadness that the attacks and murders of Copts have increased.

Q: Foreign correspondents in Egypt say that the protesters’ anger was a cry for justice, and they recognized that there was something genuinely positive in the uprising. But the most cautious would add that this is not something upon which to build a community, given that it is easier to unite against someone than it is to find the way forward together. Can all this youthful energy have some positive impact, or is it disorganized?

A: I agree with the correspondent’s point of view. But democracy, freedom, jobs and justice can only be developed if you develop the right institutions and have a grasp of the economy. Egypt is a poor country with more than 80 million inhabitants, of whom a large percentage are illiterate who cannot cope with the challenges of the 21st century. I do not doubt the abilities of the academic and educated elite, but the social problems are so huge. The general trend towards a more traditionally religious society based on the Koran will also not contribute to modernization.

Q: Do the Egyptian masses want democracy in any meaningful sense of the word, or do they lack a clear understanding of what it is all about?

A: They surely want democracy, but when you listen to what they have to say, it seems they think there is something tangible that they can grasp and carry, and not an abstract idea that needs time and requires effort from the entire nation to be accomplished. Democracy is not just majority rule. It involves a politically independent judiciary, equal rights for all — including non-Muslims and non-Arab minorities such as Kurds, Assyrians, and Berbers — and freedom of expression and acceptance of pluralism and criticism. But all this is forbidden both in Sharia law and in the Cairo Declaration of 1990 on human rights in Islam. In order to achieve democracy, one must first eliminate the Sharia.

Q: Professor Bernard Lewis says that there is something in the Muslim tradition that is vaguely reminiscent of democracy; in other words these consultative groups consisting of key people, clan leaders etc. Is such a corporate model the best you could hope for?

A: Such meetings, in which unelected tribal leaders make decisions have nothing whatsoever to do with a modern democracy as we know it.

Q: The Copts were not particularly satisfied with the election of the leader of the constitutional committee. Do you fear that the constitutional amendments will pave the way for the Brotherhood?

A: As early as 1971 the Egyptian Constitution’s Article 2 specified that “the Islamic legal principles is one of the main sources of legislation.” This rule was strengthened on 30 April 1980, when Parliament changed it to Sharia being the main source of legislation. Egypt has kept many Islamic laws: polygamy, discrimination against women, lack of recognition of the Baha’i as a religion, punishment for apostasy and blasphemy, as well as restrictions on Christian religious and civil rights. I am sure that the Brotherhood influence will give the Christians as well as the liberal Muslims an even harder life if they (the Brotherhood) enter the parliament. In addition there will be no democracy without full recognition of Israel’s rights in its historic homeland, or unless the ideology of jihad against non-Muslims ceases.

In the video below, British MEP Nigel Farage is interviewed by RT about the NATO campaign in Libya, and the publicly-stated push by the European Council to oust Col. Moamar Ghedaffi and effect regime change in Libya. The interview also covers the collapse of the Portuguese government, the imminent bailout of Portugal, and the current fiscal crisis in the Eurozone:

Nicolai Sennels’ latest guest-essay examines the characteristics of Islamization as it applies to modern Western societies.

What is Islamization? An incomplete list.

by Dr. Nicolai Sennels

The word “Islamization” was originally coined by Muslims to describe the conversion of a kufr (infidel) society to an “enlightened” (Islamic) society. Islamization is a phenomenon that has existed since the Muslim prophet Mohammed lived 1,400 years ago. Islamization has been effective, since it is now the main religion in 57 countries. The association of Islamic countries, OIC, is the world’s largest supra-national organization, surpassed only by the UN.

Three roads to Islamization

One road to Islamization is to remove non-Islamic traditions and symbols. This is to avoid offending Muslims or expose Muslims to proselytizing by other faiths. It also aims to reduce competition from the country’s original religion and culture in order to improve the possibilities for further Islamization. An example is the Red Cross’ refusal to decorate for Christmas in their stores, or when banks no longer hands out piggy banks to their customers’ kids (because pigs are unclean in Islam) — in both situations in order not to offend Muslims and lose Muslim customers.

Another way Islamization is accomplished is by making Islamic traditions and rules part of non-Islamic societies. Examples are reconstruction of public sports facilities to cater for Muslims’ inhibited views on nudity and contact between the sexes, or the imposition of leave on Islamic holidays.

A third way Islamization achieved happens when certain areas or neighborhoods acquire such a high a proportion of Muslims that the country’s indigenous culture and people are pushed out. One example is when non-Islamic authorities such as police and fire departments meet with disrespect and sometimes even threats and violence, while imams, patrolling police-style Muslim fathers’ groups, homemade Sharia Courts, and Islamic mediation meetings are free to exercise their power. Another example is when Jews can not wear yarmulke or girls can not wear miniskirts in Muslim-dominated areas, because they risk being attacked.

Islamization thus occurs through elimination of the indigenous culture, introduction of Islamic traditions and through immigration and the building of Muslim parallel societies.

Disadvantages of Islamization

There are many disadvantages of Islamization. The main issue is of course that it comes at the expense of our own culture, which is the foundation of our lifestyle, our sense of community and our well-functioning society. Also, our western culture is simply better than that of the Muslims because it is freer, includes human rights, and is more productive. In addition, Western culture makes people more self-confident, happy and loving, because unlike the Muslim culture it does not cultivate aggression, fragile feelings of honor, and intolerance against other faiths. Furthermore, we allow free speech and allow women and feminine qualities to bloom freely for the benefit of themselves, men, and society.

Every time we introduce more Islamization to our society, it moves one step away from our own culture, and one step closer to the Muslim culture and a sharia-based society.

Islamization occurs at the expense of the indigenous culture and its norms. By harming the native culture, important life values are taken away from the people and the values and norms that bind our community together are undermined. The sense of community is fundamental to quality of life for us “pack” animals, and common core values are the foundation of the mutual trust, helpfulness, openness, understanding, and respect among a population.

Islamization dilutes the national identity among the indigenous population, because it dilutes our common culture. At the same time it strengthens the Muslims’ Islamic identity at the expense of national identity. National identity and sense of community are important for work morale, tax morale, morale in relation to benefit fraud and respect towards the nations laws and authorities. People who feel part of the community feel that they hurt themselves if they harm the community.

Islamization allows inhumane traditions take root in our society. The Koran’s prescriptions and the Muslim culture’s views on women, free speech, and other faiths are medieval. They are subversive to the democracy and human rights in a country — and whether it be little or much, or whether it is restricted to certain geographical areas, no such thing should take root in our society.

Islamization pushes the indigenous people out of the areas where Muslims and Muslim culture dominate. This is because the Muslim culture is so different from the Western that we find it hard to feel at home and comfortable, and because Islam and Muslim culture is racist towards non-Muslims.

Islamization makes it possible to retain Muslim traditionalists or Islamic extremists in our countries, because they can keep their Islamic traditions. This is counter-productive to integration and a source of homegrown Islamic extremism.

For every new Islamization of society, the step is shorter to the next Islamization. It is easier for Muslims to make claims when they can refer to the fact that we already accepted a large number of other similar claims.

Islamization provides maneuvering space for a political ideology that has oppression and extermination of all non-Muslims as both means and goal.

Examples of Islamization

The following examples of Islamization lead to one or more of the aforementioned disadvantages:

Below is the speech given by Geert Wilders last night (March 25) at the Annual Lecture of the Magna Carta Foundation in Rome.

The Failure of Multiculturalism and How to Turn the Tide

Speech by Geert Wilders, Rome, 25 March 2011

Signore e signori, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends of the Magna Carta Foundation, molte grazie. Thank you for inviting me to Rome. It is great to be here in this beautiful city which for many centuries was the capital and the centre of Europe’s Judeo-Christian culture.

Together with Jerusalem and Athens, Rome is the cradle of our Western civilization — the most advanced and superior civilization the world has ever known.

As Westerners, we share the same Judeo-Christian culture. I am from the Netherlands and you are from Italy. Our national cultures are branches of the same tree. We do not belong to multiple cultures, but to different branches of one single culture. This is why when we come to Rome, we all come home in a sense. We belong here, as we also belong in Athens and in Jerusalem.

It is important that we know where our roots are. If we lose them we become deracinated. We become men and women without a culture.

I am here today to talk about multiculturalism. This term has a number of different meanings. I use the term to refer to a specific political ideology. It advocates that all cultures are equal. If they are equal it follows that the state is not allowed to promote any specific cultural values as central and dominant. In other words: multiculturalism holds that the state should not promote a leitkultur, which immigrants have to accept if they want to live in our midst.

It is this ideology of cultural relativism which the German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently referred to when she said that multiculturalism has proved “an absolute failure.”

My friends, I dare say that we have known this all along. Indeed, the premise of the multiculturalist ideology is wrong. Cultures are not equal. They are different, because their roots are different. That is why the multiculturalists try to destroy our roots.

Rome is a very appropriate place to address these issues. There is an old saying which people of our Western culture are all familiar with. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” it says. This is an obvious truth: If you move somewhere, you must adapt to the laws and customs of the land.

The multicultural society has undermined this rule of common sense and decency. The multicultural society tells the newcomers who settle in our cities and villages: You are free to behave contrary to our norms and values. Because your norms and values are just as good, perhaps even better, than ours.

It is, indeed, appropriate to discuss these matters here in Rome, because the history of Rome also serves as a warning.

Will Durant, the famous 20th century American historian, wrote that “A great civilization cannot be destroyed from outside if it has not already destroyed itself from within.” This is exactly what happened here, in Rome, 16 centuries ago.

In the 5th century, the Roman Empire fell to the Germanic Barbarians. There is no doubt that the Roman civilization was far superior to that of the Barbarians. And yet, Rome fell. Rome fell because it had suffered a loss of belief in its own civilization. It had lost the will to stand up and fight for survival.

Rome did not fall overnight. Rome fell gradually. The Romans scarcely noticed what was happening. They did not perceive the immigration of the Barbarians as a threat until it was too late. For decades, Germanic Barbarians, attracted by the prosperity of the Empire, had been crossing the border.

Friday, March 25, 2011

NATO forces led by the United States today bombed tanks manned by forces loyal to Col. Mommar al-Gaddafi near the town of Ajdabiya, which had at one point been in rebel hands and was later captured by Libyan government forces. After the bombing, there were reports that rebel forces had re-entered the town.

Meanwhile, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said that he will hand over power to an opposition group, provided that they are responsible people — what he called “safe hands”. Violent protests continue in Syria, and more demonstrators have been killed as the protests spread to Damascus. Demonstrators in Jordan were confronted by police in a public square in Amman. In Oman, protestors have organized popular forums in three cities.

In other news, the efforts to stabilize the six reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear plant in Japan have run into a setback. Pools of water in the basements of two reactor buildings were found to have exceedingly high radiation levels, and two workers were hospitalized with radiation burns. The high radiation levels could mean that the containment structures for the reactors have been breached, but any further meltdowns are considered very unlikely at this point.

Thanks to AC, C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, Freedom Fighter, Insubria, JD, JP, Salome, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

In a Vienna hospital, the gender-segregation rules demanded by Muslims are applied to everyone, Muslim or otherwise. The parents of a little girl undergoing heart surgery were dismayed to find that they had no choice but to follow the sharia rules.

In physics the process is quite simple: If there is a vacuum somewhere, and the body which contains it springs a leak, it fills up with whatever is outside the body (if the state of matter is appropriate). That is to say: someone who has no culture of his own need not be surprised if another, newer one suddenly spreads out over his living space.

Two Austrian parents had this experience when the father intended to spend the night by the hospital bed of his six year-old daughter after a planned-for operation. From the very start, at registration in Vienna Medical Center East, the parents had to agree in writing that the mother — and definitely not the father — would take the night vigil.

In the video below, Erick Stakelbeck of CBN News interviews Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon about the recent increase in terror attacks on Israel, and the rocket launches from Gaza. Mr. Yaalon believes most of the recent attacks — which differ in important ways from previous terror operations against Israel — are being carried out by Iranian proxies.

Our Perth correspondent Anne-Kit sends this translation from Sappho’s newsletter. She says, “I’m not sure I agree with everything he says, but I found it thought provoking enough to translate, and it might spark some discussion among Gates of Vienna readers.”

Torben Mark Pedersen’s opinion piece overlaps some of the themes that were discussed on Tuesday’s open discussion thread.

Freedom of expression does not existby Torben Mark Pedersen

23 March 2011

Torben Mark Pedersen clears up the definition of freedom of expression: Freedom of expression is not a ‘right’, private property rights are. Without private property rights, there can be no freedom of expression.

No right

Freedom of expression does not exist. And this statement is not just a pessimistic declaration on the state of the world.

No, it is more fundamental than that. In spite of various human rights declarations, bills and constitutions, it makes no sense talking about freedom of expression as a human right.

In fact it should be quite obvious:

I have neither the right, nor can I demand to have my letters to the editor printed in the newspapers, or have my points of view aired on radio or TV; I have no right to take to the Speaker’s chair in Parliament, or go on stage at the Royal Theatre to state my candid opinion on cultural subsidies.

I am not allowed to make political speeches in the Supreme Court, I do not have permission to shout “fire” in a crowded theatre; I would not be popular if I slandered my friends’ girlfriends in their own homes; I doubt if I’d be allowed to make speeches about the crimes of socialism at the Socialist People’s Party headquarters, unless they invited me to do so.

I may not publish naked photos of my ex-girlfriends on the internet; I am not even allowed to put a naked photo of myself on Facebook. I cannot express my artistic calling by painting graffiti on the walls of apartments and public buildings.

Why not?

We enjoy private property rights, not freedom of expression

Because freedom of expression is not a ‘right’. Private property rights, on the other hand, are.

All liberties originate in private property rights; fundamentally in self-ownership: The moral assertion that every man owns himself and the use of his own abilities — physical as well as mental.

Note: This post has been revised from its earlier version to explain why blasphemy (Asia Bibi’s crime) is considered a form of kufr, or unbelief, under Islamic law.

This job takes up so much of my time that I am chronically unable to do any outside reading. Unless I have to go to the dentist or wait at the DMV, I read very little that doesn’t bear directly on Gates of Vienna or related work.

Last week provided a chance to catch up on some of the backlog: I had to renew my driver’s license, which involved sitting at the Department of Motor Vehicles for an extended period. To add to the pleasure of the occasion, I took along several issues of National Review, which I had been neglecting since before Christmas.

Every issue of NR contains a feature near the front of the magazine called “The Week”, in which the editors collect various noteworthy news stories and add a bit of unsigned commentary to them. The February 7th issue included this item:

Aasia Bibi is a Pakistani Christian under sentence of death for blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed. She had been working in the fields one day alongside Muslim women, and they apparently set her up. The blasphemy law with its mandatory death sentence dates from the 1980s as part of Pakistan’s growing Islamism and has no Koranic sanction. [emphasis added]

That’s an intriguing assertion, coming from a (presumably) non-Muslim editor of a conservative American political magazine. It reminds me of the blanket statements about “true Islam” that are repeated over and over by the White House, or generals at the Pentagon, or officials at the Department of Homeland Security.

How do they know that something “has no Koranic sanction”? What authorities have they consulted? What texts have they examined?

Do they rely solely on press releases put out by CAIR? Or did they perhaps hear a talking head from ISNA say something about it on CNN?

How much do they know about Islam, and where did they learn it?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

To determine whether or not something is sanctioned by the Koran, a good place to start is ’Umdat al-salik wa ’uddat al-nasik, or The reliance of the traveller and tools of the worshipper, by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri.

The book is commonly referred to as Reliance of the Traveller when cited in English, and is an authoritative source on Sunni Islamic law. We know this because it is certified as such by Al-Azhar University in Cairo, which is recognized by Sunni Muslims as the highest authority on Sunni Islamic doctrine.

To understand the charge lodged against Asia Bibi, let’s take a look at Book O, “Justice”, in Reliance of the Traveller. The book does not actually refer to “blasphemy” — the word is not used in the text to describe a crime. However, the topic is covered by the more general concept of kufr, or “unbelief”.

Section o8.7, “Acts that Entail Leaving Islam”, tells us a bit more about unbelief:

Among the things that entail apostasy from Islam (may Allah protect us from them) are:

(1)

to prostrate to an idol, whether sarcastically, out of mere contrariness, or in actual conviction…

(2)

to intend to commit unbelief, even if in the future…

(3)

to speak words that imply unbelief such as “Allah is the third of three,”…

(4)

to revile Allah or His messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace);

(5)

to deny the existence of Allah…

o8.7 continues through fifteen more examples, and concludes: “There are others, for the subject is nearly limitless. May Allah Most High save us and all Muslims from it.”

For our purposes, “blasphemy” is covered by examples (1) through (5).

Example (3) in particular applies to the case of Asia Bibi, who is a Christian — “Allah is the third of three” is the Islamic description of the doctrine of the Trinity, which Muslims consider a dangerous form of unbelief. However, Ms. Bibi was also probably accused of (4), reviling Allah or Mohammed.

So Ms. Bibi is therefore guilty of kufr, and is subject to the same punishment as an apostate — someone who leaves Islam — under Islamic law.

In the header section on “Apostasy from Islam” (o8.0) we read: “Leaving Islam is the ugliest form of unbelief and the worst.” The first subsection (o8.1) is summarized with by topic header: “Whoever Voluntarily Leaves Islam Is Killed.”

And o8.1 itself includes this text:

When a person who has reached puberty and is sane voluntarily apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be killed.

That seems fairly definitive to me. But if Reliance of the Traveller isn’t authoritative enough — National Review did insist on a “Koranic sanction”, after all — we may turn to the Koran itself and a relevant supporting hadith.

It’s important to note that the citations below are from sahih (“authoritative”) sources. This means that they enjoy the “consensus of the scholars”, and are thus undisputed by all Sunni religious authorities.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

While the world’s attention has been focused on the NATO intervention in Libya, violent clashes between protesters and security forces have escalated in Syria. In the city of Deraa, south of Damascus, between 15 and 100 protesters were killed by police and soldiers. An estimated 20,000 people attended the funeral of some of the victims.

Meanwhile, Japan experienced a “yellow rain” scare in the Tokyo area. A number of residents became worried by a rainfall which contained a yellow powder, fearing that the resulting pools of water contained radioactive compounds. Government officials assured the public that the yellow material was pollen, and normal for this time of year. But not everyone was reassured, since officials told people the same thing when radioactive “yellow rain” fell in the then Soviet Union in 1986, after the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

In other news, the Portuguese prime minister was forced to resign when parliament failed to pass an austerity program to meet the EU’s requirements. Some analysts suspect that a euro-bailout for Portugal may be on the way.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Mark Durie is an Australian author and Anglican priest who swims against the current in his church by speaking out against the violence in Islam. In his public talks he points out that such violence is inherent in Islam, and is in fact mandated by the Koran and the hadith.

The following op-ed by Fr. Durie from today’s (actually tomorrow’s) Sydney Morning Herald addresses this issue forthrightly — or at least as forthrightly as is possible in the MSM:

Muslim violence a fact, not prejudice by Mark Durie

Those who denounce critics of Islam should allow that, like all global faiths, Islam has its detractors and a religion will be judged on what its followers say and do.

There is a debate going on about Islam. The question being asked is: Does Islam itself — not just poverty or social exclusion — provide ideological fuel for extremism and violence?

It is all too tempting to promote one-dimensional explanations of religious violence. Monash University doctoral candidate Rachel Woodlock said on this page on Wednesday that social exclusion was the root of Islamic radicalism.

On one hand, there are those who, like Woodlock, demand that critics of Islam be stigmatised as ignorant, right-wing racists. On the other hand, Islam’s problems cannot be simplistically reduced to social or economic factors.

Violence in the name of Islam is well-attested in nations in which Muslims are dominant, and it is non-Muslim minorities that suffer the exclusion. It does not do to argue that religion has no relevance to such events.

In Muslim-majority Pakistan on December 3, Pakistani imam Maulana Yousuf Qureshi, in his Friday sermon, offered a $6000 bounty to anyone who would murder Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who has also been accused of ‘‘blaspheming Allah’’. Pakistani minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti and Punjab governor Salman Taseer were subsequently assassinated because of their opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

These laws are supported by Pakistan’s Islamic elites. The killer of Salman Taseer, Mumtaz Qadri, was praised by religious leaders from mainstream schools of Pakistani Islam, and when he was being led to court on January 6, 400 Muslim lawyers showered him with rose petals, offering him their legal services free of charge.

There has also been a rush of recent assaults on Copts and their places of worship in Egypt, sparked by a wild tirade by a leading Egyptian cleric.

Closer to Australia, there have been well-publicised attacks on Ahmadiyah Muslims in Indonesia, including brutal murders. These were undoubtedly influenced by a theological belief that Ahmadiyah adherents are apostates from true Islam. Although prominent Indonesian leaders were quick to express abhorrence for the attacks, many Indonesian Muslims have called for Ahmadiyahs to be outlawed.

These events demonstrate the ugly effects of stigmatising minorities, and it would be deplorable to simple-mindedly extrapolate the religious views of Pakistani, Egyptian or Indonesian Muslims and apply them to Australia.

However, it is irrational to insist that any and everyone who seeks to expose the religious roots of such hatred must themselves be decried as haters.

All over the world, every religious belief is disliked by someone or other. Christianity has its prominent detractors, too, from Bertrand Russell to Richard Dawkins. A Google search for ‘‘Evils of Christianity’’ yields tens of thousands of hits.

Australians can be thankful for a culture of tolerance, which has been carefully nurtured over decades. Tolerance is strengthened when people are able to debate ideological issues freely — especially those which impact profoundly on human rights — without being shouted down.

The term “Canadian aboriginals” in the title of this post is somewhat misleading. As the video below makes clear, the Indian tribe in question actually originated in what is now the United States, and not in Canada. However, the criminal Mohawks described in the presentation now live on the Six Nations Reserve just outside of Caledonia, Ontario.

In recent years tribal members have purchased land adjacent to the reservation, and treat it as part of their reservation. They smuggle in and sell contraband cigarettes and engage in other criminal activity within the jurisdiction of the Ontario Provincial Police, but Canadian law enforcement has so far declined to deal with the problem. Local residents protested; the aboriginals attacked the protesters and blockaded a nearby highway. A tense stalemate has been in place since 2007, with no resolution in sight.

What makes this case interesting is that a three-way Demonic Convergence has emerged in the Caledonia area: Organized crime (the Mohawks), lefties (Communists and Anarchists), and Islamic terrorists (Hezbollah and other groups). Watch for the mujahideen in the slide show — you’ll see them in the protests, marching in fraternal solidarity with the Reds and the Redskins.

The Canadian government appears to have implicitly conceded the Indians’ claim by referring to the standoff as a “peacekeeping matter” rather than a law-enforcement issue. There is even talk of sending in the “blue helmets” — that is, the U.N.

On Tuesday night Vlad Tepes attended and recorded a series of presentations on the situation in Caledonia. He says:

Out of over 3000 bands of aboriginal people, all of whom live in peace with the general population of Canada and with varying degrees of success ,only the ‘Six Nations people’ or Mohawk have allied themselves with international terrorists and use their special status to run organized crime with impunity from the police and state, even, on occasion, with their assistance.

Many thanks to Vlad for recording and YouTubing this video, which is placed below the jump:

Our Norwegian correspondent Vikverjer has translated an interesting article about the ascendancy of cultural enrichment in a formerly Norwegian suburb of Oslo.

The article below was published today in Aftenposten, one of the major Norwegian newspapers:

“It is difficult to be ethnic Norwegian here”

Patrick Åserud has had enough of pressure about salami-free food, blond-hate and horrible language skills.

“I will not let my children grow up here. I do not dare to.”

He has made up his mind. After spending his whole life in Groruddalen [a district of Oslo], the developments of the past year have frightened Patrick Åserud into leaving. In the coming summer he will move with his wife and kindergarten-age daughter from Furuset [in Groruddalen], and out of the city.

He is moving from a local area he thinks is on its way to falling apart due to the heavy weight of failed integration.

Worrying stories

“It has become difficult to be an ethnic Norwegian in Groruddalen. There are huge language problems, and additionally a pressure that we [Norwegians] must adjust to norms that feel completely foreign to us, who have a Western lifestyle and mindset.

“There are kindergartens where almost no children or parents speak Norwegian, and there are schools where children are threatened with beatings if they bring salami with them for their school lunch.

“Girls are bullied for being blond, and they colour their hair dark to avoid it and fit in. It is especially not okay to be gay at the school, nor atheist, and especially not Jewish.

“Over the last three years it has been particularly frightening to watch and hear about everything that happens,” says Åserud.

A majority of parents need translator

He has quit his job at the kindergarten. It is especially during his fifteen years as a teacher at the school and kindergarten that he has noticed the changes in the population.

“We had to use a translator in 10 of 18 conversations with parents.

“What kind of possibility does one have to create a good environment and a co-operate with the families, when the situation is like this?” asks Åserud.

Thousands have left

He feels that it is he and his family who must integrate as a minority in their own country.

“I was positive and optimistic earlier. But it has crossed a line when there is a majority that does not speak the language well.

“There are many of us that have strong feelings about this, regardless of the colour on our skin. An Indian family I know are expected [by the muslim immigrants] to live and behave as Muslims, just because they have brown skin colour.”

“Many people will perhaps think you are intolerant and not in line with the ‘New Norway’?”

“If that is the case, then there are very many who are not in line. The reality is that [Norwegian] people move away from this area. And they do so because of experiences they have had,” says Åserud.

Synopsis: The concept of the Shadow is a generalization and extension of the practice of forming a “shadow government” in a parliamentary system.

Western Civilization will soon face an existential crisis and may partially or completely collapse. The absolute limiting factor for the onset of the Discontinuity will be the failure of the modern welfare state due to demographic implosion, which will occur within a generation at most. Other factors may speed up the course of events, but there are too many variables to permit a precise prediction of the trajectory of the coming crisis.

To simplify the discussion, I have divided the Shadow up into seven overlapping functions:

1.

Civil administration

2.

Education (primary, secondary, and post-secondary)

3.

The media and mass communications

4.

Manufacturing and commerce

5.

Legislative bodies

6.

Law enforcement

7.

The military

Shadows of each of these functions are already under construction within the distributed non-hierarchical networks now forming among people who are concerned about what lies ahead. I propose a systematic examination of the Shadow in hopes of making it more of a conscious enterprise, and thereby accelerating the trend.

Regular readers are familiar with the range of topics covered by Fjordman in his essays. The link on our sidebar to the “Fjordman Files” leads to articles on Multiculturalism, Islamization, politics, history, archaeology, optics, population genetics, beer, chocolate, climate, astronomy, cosmology, and many other topics. Fjordman’s breadth of knowledge is nothing short of phenomenal.

One of Fjordman’s intentions in digesting and summarizing so much material about Western Civilization is to provide what he calls a “virtual Lindisfarne” — a compendium of general knowledge that can become part of a repository of all that is good and useful and beautiful within our culture. When the lights begin to wink out across the West, we will need the equivalent of the ancient monastic communities to nurture the seeds of a successor civilization. The virtual Lindisfarne may be digital, printed, or hand-copied — depending on how far we fall from our current state — but above all it will require a network of educated people with the expertise and the tools to pass on their knowledge and skills.

One of the reasons that we are facing a Discontinuity is that the educational systems in all Western countries have been systematically degraded since early in the 20th century. The deterioration accelerated after 1975, when the “sixty-eighters” came online in our major cultural institutions. Most children grow up and graduate from today’s universities without obtaining an education that would compare favorably with that of a high school graduate in 1920.

When I was a teenager in the 1960s, modern educational fads had already infected American school systems. Yet Civics was still taught in my junior high school, as was history — real history, not multicultural and gender-normed history. We all had to study a foreign language and read Shakespeare.

A generation earlier, before Dewey and the Progressives had had their way with American education, Latin was part of the standard curriculum in my father’s public high school. Every student who graduated was expected to read Chaucer in Middle English, to learn ancient and modern history, and to be competent in geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and the experimental sciences.

Virtually no remnant of this pedagogical excellence remains in our public school systems. Youngsters who manage to become educated nowadays either attend private schools, or are homeschooled, or follow their own interests and educate themselves in their young adulthood. This last group is well-represented among Gates of Vienna readers — young people often send me emails with comments or questions, and to ask for suggestions for further reading.

So we know that the raw material for a Shadow educational system exists. The problem will be how to organize it and harness it so that it can help transmit the best of Western Civilization to those who survive the Discontinuity.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Fjordman’s work could serve as a valuable survey course covering the most important achievements of Western Civilization. At one point he jocularly referred to his collected writings as “European Accomplishments: The First 40,000 Years”.

His writings form an archival resource that could be used as a curriculum in an alternative educational system. Other such resources exist, and some of the best are designed to be used by parents with their homeschooled children.